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I wanted to make a group piece as part of the yarnbombing installation at The Oakland Museum and I suggested that we do one when I pitched this installation idea to The Oakland Standard. Then I got over whelmed by all the other crazy knitting ideas I had come up with and I dropped the idea . Then late in the game the people in the museum said ” Why don’t we have a knitting circle as part of the yarnbombing ? ”

This was great , this went along with a helpful tip my father had given me.

‘The way to get people to do something is to allow them to think that it is all their own idea ” he told me when I was young.

So I organized a knitting circle to make a flowered garland – I brought all my many handspun colors , I gave everyone a simple knitted flower pattern and planned to sew them all onto a braided cord later.

The knitting circle was a lot of fun . I had just had some surgery on my face and had a big bandage on . I could hardly open my eye yet no one commented. People are very kind or possibly very oblivious. Some one asked me to speak about the yarnbombing project so I made a little speech . I love public speaking . I felt like a kayaking instructor again.

Some of the knitters who came knew me from my other life and didn’t know that I am now Streetcolor. That was an interesting melding of worlds. “Call me Streetcolor! ” I had to keep saying when they said my other name . I only felt a little silly saying that .

There were some new knitters showing up and the more experienced knitters were teaching them how to knit. I was touched by this and inspired. This yarnbombing installation and this collaboration on the garland are part of something that I believe really strongly.

1 . Everyone gets to make art.

2 . Making art is not a competition – it is this steady flow of natural relaxing yet exciting energy.

3 . This is all to have more fun and to enjoy , not to prove something to some one else.

So there we all were having fun and making something beautiful together. Oh I forgot to mention I had bought some cookies from Sweet Adelaines – every kind they baked – lots of them. The handspun yarn looked very lush. So I was able to follow 2 of my rules for life – use beautiful art materials as much as you like and make sure to have cookies.

A baby friend of mine came to the opening with her father. They went into the gallery to see the art . When I got a moment I went into the gallery to see how it was going . The baby who is named ” Bay ” , was running up and down the aisles looking at the art and cheering madly. ‘YEAH ! YEAH !’ she was shouting and throwing her arms up in the air.

So I have a commission to yarnbomb The Oakland Museum of California in mid Oct . I will be doing this through The Oakland Standard . More about them here . I will be yarnbombing the 4 bannisters in the front of the building out on the street , the 3 bannisters going down into the building , bannisters going down into the garden , 2 benches and 2 chairs that are part of the architectural Jensen installation. And maybe a tree. All handspun yarn .

The reason that this installation is so extreme is this . I came up with it and I wanted it to be really big – something that would be big enough that it wouldn’t make me think about knitting and yarnbombing in a whole new way . Too big to be just ‘cute ‘

So now I go around begging my friends to help me knit . I now have Brenda Loreman , The Russian , Hargus Rose , The Fibrarian , and Anna Wong all knitting . And I spin all the time . And watch ” Star Trek Next Generation .”

It’s interesting to me how I get really excited and then really doubtful ,alternating . We tend to swerve away from what we really want .

This yarnbombing installation will go up in mid Oct 2011 and will be up for a month . I am so impressed with The Oakland Museum of California -this could be a first -yarnbombing the building of a museum inside and out .

International Yarnbombing Show On The Streets of Oakland , Ca.

At the same time this installation is up I want to put up a yarnbombing street art show using the streets of Oakland as a gallery . I am asking for yarnbombs from all over the world , signed by their artists with names and countries and I will sew them up on street poles , bike racks , parking meters , lamp posts and fences . I need tags that are 7.5 inches around { stretches measurement so they don’t slide down } and 4 to 8 ft long . I want people to get to see the amazing things you can do with knitting and crocheting f , so I’m hoping for ruffles , flowers , fairisle , cables , buttons , bobbles , protrusions and lots of color .

I need yarnbombs to start coming around Oct 10 so I can start installing . I will take pictures and post them and documant the whole deal

Turning a city into a gallery of knitted street art at the same time a museum has an installation- I like what this says about art , knitting , street art , out new global internet life , freedom and doing what you want .

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We were having a good time yarnbombing The North Berkeley Library last Friday , getting ready for their grand reopening. We had 4 glass blowing inspired knit tags and they really looked good against the new rosy tile. Lots of locals were stopping and taking pictures and thanking us. I love libraries so much and […]